Thurcroft building must be demolished

Guardian News

Published:10:28Sunday 30 September 2012

THE owners of a building in Thurcroft have three months to demolish it before being taken to court by Rotherham Council.

The authority’s planning board agreed last week to authorise the prosecution of the owners of a large storage building on Morthen Road, for not complying with an Enforcement Notice served on them in 2010. The notice required them to demolish the building, built on Green Belt land and which planners believe is inappropriate development.

This decision was upheld by an independent planning inspector and at last week’s meeting, councillors again refused an application to retain the building. The application was for the building, together with adjoining land, to be retained and used for agricultural and dog sporting activities, such as agility and flyballing, ancillary caravan and car parking areas.

In addition to refusing the application, councillors also authorised prosecution action to be taken - as the building should have been demolished by last December. However, councillors agreed to give the owners a further three months to take it down. If it is still in place after three months, legal action will begin.

Original planning permission was granted in 2006 for an agricultural storage building, but the building erected did not relate to what had been approved in terms of appearance and use. An Enforcement Notice was served in 2007 requiring commercial use from the building and a subsequent appeal was dismissed the following year.

The council received a number of applications to effectively retain the building and use it for a variety of alternative purposes, all of which were refused. Appeals against the related refusal of planning permission and the Enforcement Notice were both dismissed.

The planning board stressed it has no issue with the use of the land adjacent to the building for outdoor recreational use, such as for dog agility. Their main concern is with the retention of the existing unauthorised building, which is far too large for its proposed use in this green belt location.

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